Carcasses of four Bengal tigers and illegal products seized

BANGKOK, January 5 (TNA) - Thai customs authorities Thursday seized carcasses of four adult Bengal tigers and their bones at a postal distribution center in Bangkok, together with several other illegal products, totally worth some 32 million baht. According to Thai Customs Department Deputy Director General Ornanong Vatchara-Setakul, the large postal box filled with different parts of the four Bengal tigers' carcasses was sent to the Laksi postal distribution center in the capital from Hat Yai in Thailand's southern Songkhla Province, on its half way to Chiang Saen District of Chiang Rai Province in the Thai North. Ornanong said that it was likely the carcasses of the four Bengal tigers, weighing 800-1000 kilograms and priced about 500,000 baht each, were shipped from neighbouring countries and destined for collectors of wildlife carcasses and consumers of tiger bones in neighbouring markets, and that Thai law enforcement officers have immediately tracking down those involving in the cross-border wildlife trafficking. Meanwhile, Thai customs authorities also confiscated several items of illegal and pirated products worth about 30 million baht on board a 10-wheel truck from Thailand's eastern Sa Kaeo Province en route to business outlets and shops in Bangkok and peripheral provinces, including glutathione substance for skin whitening, fish oil supplementary tablets, pirated CDs, VCDs and brand-name apparels, as well as fake pistols. (TNA)